Steve Ortmayer, fired as general manager of the San Diego Chargers in December, rejoined the Raiders to work in football operations and coach the special teams, the club announced Tuesday. Ortmayer spent nine seasons with the Raiders as director of football operations and special teams coach before he left to become San Diego's director of football operations in January of 1987. The Chargers floundered under Ortmayer, compiling a 19-27 record in his three-year tenure.

Call La Verne College football Coach Roland Ortmayer the authentic eccentric. He is authentic because Ortmayer, 70, has been coaching 42 years--the last 40 at La Verne. "Ort," as everyone calls him, says people often ask him when he is going to retire, but he has no idea. Assistant coach Rex Higgins thinks Ort will coach until he dies.

It will mark the end of an era when La Verne's football team plays host to Claremont-Mudd-Scripps Saturday. After 45 years as a college coach, two at William Penn of Iowa and the past 43 at La Verne, Roland Ortmayer is calling it a career. Only to Ortmayer, 73, it will simply be another in a series of steps in his life. "The way I look at it, this is just another part of my life that I'm going to go through," Ortmayer said.

Just you and me, Al Baby, up in the pressbox Sunday. Crazy, crazy people in this world, Al Baby, and hard to believe, but you have to understand that some of them wonder how you could have advised Charger owner Alex Spanos that your special teams coach would make a great NFL general manager. You know football, everybody knows that, but we got to know Steve Ortmayer. And you know Ort, too, he's now back as your special teams coach.

The drama is over now. And it is not about the 6-10 record the Chargers finished with in a year when they lost enough close games to make you think about what former San Francisco Coach Bill Walsh is alleged to have once said about quarterback Steve DeBerg: "He's just good enough to get you beat." Not too many teams beat the Chargers this year. But they were just good enough to beat themselves almost every week.

The Raiders win 9-7, and Steve Ortmayer's special teams stand tall in victory. Ouch! Ortmayer, who once was the Chargers' director of football operations, helped complete the job Sunday night. Ortmayer's special teams produced three field goals, including a career-best 53-yarder from Jeff Jaeger, and knocked down John Carney's 44-yard game-winning attempt with 1:57 to play. The Raiders (9-4) remained in first place in the AFC West Division with the tiebreaker advantage on Denver.

Steve Ortmayer and former Cleveland Coach Marty Schottenheimer will meet again to discuss the vacant Charger head coaching job. That was the word Tuesday from the Charger front office. Ortmayer, the team's director of football operations, was en route to Palo Alto to scout the East-West Shrine game and was unavailable for comment. It also has been confirmed that Ortmayer has asked the Minnesota Vikings for permission to talk to their defensive coordinator, Floyd Peters.

The Chargers keep playing "telephone tag" with No. 1 pick Rod Bernstine's agent, but negotiations are about to be done face to face. Steve Ortmayer, the Chargers' director of football operations, said Wednesday that Bernstine's agent, Ralph Cindrich of Pittsburgh, is expected to fly to San Diego today. Cindrich, reached at his home Wednesday night, said he'll only fly out if Ortmayer is willing to negotiate around the clock.